The Bombers are built for speed, and they’re not that big. A big O-line coupled with a big back can feast on that.

Messam did, with 126 yards, all in the second half.

“That’s a big body, tumbling and rumbling,” the 5-foot-11, 200-pound Randle said. “It was a different look than we have been getting. We just need to do better on that, too.”

I bounced off Randle and over to linebacker Ian Wild, one of the smallish men in the middle of the defence.

“He’s a big dude,” said Wild, who gives away four inches and 40 pounds to Messam. “He pounded the ball ... they sealed the deal at the end, there.

“We just need to find a scheme so they don’t know where we’re going to be and we can hit some gaps.”

Etcheverry has done a masterful job hiding the weaknesses on his unit. Until Thursday.

“It’s going to alert some people, open some eyes for sure,” defensive end Greg Peach said. “They kind of surprised us a little with that. It won’t happen again.”

Can we be sure?

The Labour Day Classic and the Banjo Bowl are looming.

“We came back from the Edmonton loss and learned from our mistakes and won the next week,” Peach said. “That’s what you have to do when you lose close games like this. You start another streak.”

Peach, who made six tackles in the game, brought down any thoughts of pointing fingers at the other side of the ball.

“People are going to try and put it on the offence,” he said. “They’re out there playing their hearts out and we are, too. Sometimes the ball just bounces the wrong way. That’s football.”

The kind of football these teams play is right up Peach’s tree.

It was every bit the slugfest it appeared to be.

“Yeah, that’s how it felt,” Peach said. “It was definitely a physical game inside.”

Wild agreed: “A little bit more intense than the other games.”

They have two more of them. At least.

“I’m excited for it,” Peach said. “This was a very electric game, and those are the games you love to play. Obviously the loss sucked, but we were flying around and playing good football. We can do it again.”

But can they beat the Grey Cup champs?

“I didn’t feel like they were superior to any other team we’ve played,” linebacker Desia Dunn said. “The good thing about it, though, we have them two more times to prove we’re the better team.”

That should settle it.

Because not even the biggest, meanest running back on the planet can split a best of three.